The Relationship between SAT Scores and Retention to the Second Year: Replication with 2009 SAT Validity Sample. Statistical Report 2011-3

Mattern, Krista D.; Patterson, Brian F.

College Board

The College Board formed a research consortium with four-year colleges and universities to build a national higher education database with the primary goal of validating the revised SAT for use in college admission. A study by Mattern and Patterson (2009) examined the relationship between SAT scores and retention to the second year of college. The sample included first-time, first-year students entering college in fall 2006, with 106 of the original 110 participating institutions providing data on retention to the second year. The results showed that SAT performance was related to retention, even after controlling for relevant student and institutional characteristics. Replication studies have been conducted for subsequent entering cohorts of students, and similar results were found (Mattern & Patterson, 2011a, 2011b). Replicating the analyses of the previous three reports (Mattern & Patterson, 2009; 2011a, 2011b), the current study examined the relationship between SAT performance and retention to the second year for first-time, first-year students that began in the fall of 2009. A total of 131 institutions provided data which translated to 262,949 students. Students without SAT scores, self-reported high school grade point average (HSGPA), or retention data were removed from analyses, resulting in a final sample size of 199,366 students. The results from the current study based on the 2009 sample show the same pattern of results as the previous reports. Namely, higher SAT scores are associated with higher retention rates. This was true, even after controlling for student characteristics (gender, race/ethnicity, household income, parental education, and HSGPA) and institutional characteristics (control, size, and selectivity). [For "The Relationship between SAT® Scores and Retention to the Second Year: 2008 SAT Validity Sample," see ED563084.]